How angry are you when you see someone texting in a movie theatre ? or when they throw popcorn at you ?

[Balefont]

I don't understand how this is even debatable. The theater (and every one I’ve ever been to in the continental US, and in Europe has done this) I know posts the request to turn off your phone before the trailers. The trailers then lead into the movie. Just turn the fucking thing off. There's no justifiable reason to have the thing still on.

Yep. And going to the movies isn't cheap. If someone needs to use their phone, go out in the hall and don't ruin the experience for everyone else.

[john]

In all cinemas in Canukistan at least, it most certainly is because the lights go down and the message about phones is played before the previews.

Ok, fair enough. It must be partly a cultural thing then because during the trailers is fair game for any kind of distraction as far as I'm concerned. And I like trailers as much as anybody.

And they generally do not play the turn off your phone message that early in Europe. In Luxembourg they don't even play it at all. And the trailers are interspersed with adverts and cheesy muzak. In the UK, there's no way they would dim the lights before most people had taken their seats, that would be a total Health and Safety violation. It's not even totally dark during the movie these days, the green emergency exit light is an annoyance throughout the whole film, some cinemas even have the pathways to the exit continually lit. Now that's a distraction.

[Shryke]

Ok, fair enough. It must be partly a cultural thing then because during the trailers is fair game for any kind of distraction as far as I'm concerned. And I like trailers as much as anybody.

And they generally do not play the turn off your phone message that early in Europe. In Luxembourg they don't even play it at all. And the trailers are interspersed with adverts and cheesy muzak. In the UK, there's no way they would dim the lights before most people had taken their seats, that would be a total Health and Safety violation. It's not even totally dark during the movie these days, the green emergency exit light is an annoyance throughout the whole film, some cinemas even have the pathways to the exit continually lit. Now that's a distraction.

In any theatre in North America I've been to it's:

ads and games -> message about turning off the cellphone and other not being a dick advisories -> lights down most/all of the way-> previews -> lights down fully if not done before -> movie

[Zoë Sumra]

Take away my phone during the trailers and I'll usually be reading a book by the light of a pen torch. Phones and suchlike go off when the trailers stop, not when the commercials stop.

Differing cinema etiquette in different countries aside, I seriously cannot believe that people here are justifying violence in response to someone texting their babysitter during a trailer.

[Filippa Eilhart]

In Luxembourg they don't even play it at all.

They have a little message about cleaning up after yourself instead.

[DanteGabriel]

Ok, fair enough. It must be partly a cultural thing then because during the trailers is fair game for any kind of distraction as far as I'm concerned. And I like trailers as much as anybody.

The one time I went to a movie theater in Europe (summer of 1994, saw Reservoir Dogs in London), there was something like half an hour of previews. If that's representative, I might feel a little less irritated about them being interrupted, because that's a long time for previews. Here the previews are maybe 10 minutes.

[Zoë Sumra]

The one time I went to a movie theater in Europe (summer of 1994, saw Reservoir Dogs in London), there was something like half an hour of previews. If that's representative, I might feel a little less irritated about them being interrupted, because that's a long time for previews. Here the previews are maybe 10 minutes.

In the UK at the moment, half an hour for commercials plus trailers is normal. Not sure what percentage of that is trailers and what percentage is commercials. (MCGeek and I forgot that kids' films have fewer and turned up to Frozen partway through the Mickey Mouse short before it...)

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Elosia,

Take away my phone during the trailers and I'll usually be reading a book by the light of a pen torch. Phones and suchlike go off when the trailers stop, not when the commercials stop.

Differing cinema etiquette in different countries aside, I seriously cannot believe that people here are justifying violence in response to someone texting their babysitter during a trailer.

I am absolutely not justifing violence. I'm saying texting or talking on a cell phone during a movie is rude. That does not mean a violent response to rudeness is in any way justified.

[yolkboy]

I think there should be cinema police to make sure nobody makes a noise at all. There should be surveillance and undercover agents too. Nothing makes me angrier than cinema distraction. Once they left the entrance lighting on and I couldn't see the screen for the first 5 minutes of the film. I thought I was going to turn into the incredible hulk.

And if people need food during a film, it should be liquidised popcorn fed though a drip. I don't pay to listen to your mouth noises in surround sound.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Yolkboy,

False dichotomy. You can find texting and cell phone use rude without also saying violence is a justifed response to such rudeness.

[yolkboy]

Yolkboy,

False dichotomy. You can find texting and cell phone use rude without also saying violence is a justifed response to such rudeness.

I never entered the argument one way or the other, I just expressed my feelings wrt cinema distractions.

And my idea about undercover cinema police/surveillance is the answer to the conundrum, right there.

[Gillio]

Makes me love my local theater even more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L3eeC2lJZs

:rofl: and she'll never know, cos she isn't going back there!! :rofl:

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Yolkboy,

Ad absurdum is usually a strawman.

[Theda Baratheon]

In the UK at the moment, half an hour for commercials plus trailers is normal. Not sure what percentage of that is trailers and what percentage is commercials. (MCGeek and I forgot that kids' films have fewer and turned up to Frozen partway through the Mickey Mouse short before it...)

Ya, maybe that is why there is differing opinions between people?? Because I definitely use my phone when the lights are all on, everyone is using their damn phone through the half hour of previews in the brightly lit room, the lights only all go off and the phone ad comes up just before the movie in the UK so that's maybe why I'm so outraged and bemused at the people almost justifying violence t someone texting before the damn movie has started. I'll turn my phone off usually to watch the trailers, but in UK cinemas when all the lights are up you can't even tell who is using their phone anyway because the whole room is pretty bright.

[DanteGabriel]

Ya, maybe that is why there is differing opinions between people?? Because I definitely use my phone when the lights are all on, everyone is using their damn phone through the half hour of previews in the brightly lit room, the lights only all go off and the phone ad comes up just before the movie in the UK so that's maybe why I'm so outraged and bemused at the people almost justifying violence t someone texting before the damn movie has started. I'll turn my phone off usually to watch the trailers, but in UK cinemas when all the lights are up you can't even tell who is using their phone anyway because the whole room is pretty bright.

Ah, see, in the US, it's commercials with the lights on, lights go off, ten minutes of previews, and then the feature begins. And they usually tell you to turn your phone off when the lights go off.

ETA: And, you have other ads interspersed with the movie trailers over there? I didn't remember that detail from 1994... Well, that's one thing we freedom-loving Yanks have over you Euro-Commies. ;)

[yolkboy]

Yolkboy,

Ad absurdum is usually a strawman.

sorry Scot, I don't speak foreign.

Srs i really dislike cinema distractions, but dislike violence even more so. :cool4:

[Larry of the Lawn]

Yolkboy,

Ad absurdum is usually a strawman.

And yet, in a thread about a guy that got shot for texting during movie previews and then probably being a dick about it, a bunch of people in the thread are just saying "Yeah, well, you should't text during movie previews."

Yeah it's a dick move and inconsiderate, but what's really the bigger social faux pas here, shooting a guy or being indignant when someone asks you to stop texting?

[Sansa_Stark]

I think getting angry at people texting at movies is absurdly petty.

That's just me though.

[Gneisenau]

And yet, in a thread about a guy that got shot for texting during movie previews and then probably being a dick about it, a bunch of people in the thread are just saying "Yeah, well, you should't text during movie previews."

Yeah it's a dick move and inconsiderate, but what's really the bigger social faux pas here, shooting a guy or being indignant when someone asks you to stop texting?

So would that be considered victim blaming ?

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Larry,

In no way shape or form is this shooting justified. Yes, texting during a film is still a jerky thing to do. You're acting as though these are contradictary positions, they are not.